Beale set for Wallaby starring role

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Sydney - If Kurtley Beale returns to Australia, Wallabies head coach
Michael Cheika says he won’t be just a gap filler in the Test team.

Beale became the ultimate utility for the Wallabies in the
2015 Rugby World Cup, before a knee injury kept him out of the Wallabies fold
in June 2016.

The 60-Test back is currently weighing up whether to stay
with English club Wasps for another season or to return to Australia, though he
could play for the Wallabies regardless of where he plays his week-to-week
rugby.

“I think if you look at Beale before, he wasn't starting,”
Cheika told the Australian Rugby Union's official website.

“He was hole-fixing, but I think it will be different for
him this time.

“I've got a clear vision of what I want him to do within the
team.

“I know it's only been a year- but in that year there's been
a big change in the Wallabies squad as well.

“He'll come back with a slightly different stature I'd say.
I want him to then play accordingly.”

Beale’s absence gave rise to the emergence of Reece Hodge,
who became the regular starting 12 for the Wallabies.

With Matt Giteau unlikely to play for the Wallabies again,
Beale would be the number one option at 12, with Cheika picking that as the
ex-Waratah’s best spot and said he had laid out Beale's potential Test role in
a bid to encourage him to come to Australia.

“We've said we want him to come home, this is what we think
his place in the team is and then he's got to assess that,” he said.

"Whatever happens, it's (his contract) going to be less
than he gets offered at Wasps, that's for sure, based on what he got offered
last time - even they just did that same thing again.

“It's going to be a matter of whether he wants to come home
and be an instrumental part in his team, in the Australian team, and lead-up to
the World Cup.”

Beale is by no means the only player that has been in
discussions with Australian rugby - new contracts have already been announced
for Reece Hodge, Lopeti Timani and Sam Carter this season, while Scott Fardy
and Rob Horne have confirmed they’re heading overseas.

It’s a give-and-take that’s becoming familiar for Australian
fans and Cheika.

“When a player wants to commit and say i'm coming back here
or I'm staying here, I know I'm going to get paid less but I'm buying into this
vision, that's what we want to have,” he added.

“And then, if we lose some I understand that too but I don't
hold that against them. They might come back later on, who knows?”

While Cheika has made no secret of his desire to bring
players back from overseas, he said was was widening the Wallabies net in his
Super Rugby backyard.

“I feel like I've got a different way of looking at who's
doing what in the games and who to pick into the squads," he explained.

“(We’re) comparing those players in a more relevant way,
that's going to say, ‘Hang on a second just because he's playing all these
years, he's not doing that - let's have a look at this guy,' and take a
punt."

Curtis Rona is one player Cheika might just take a punt on,
with the Wallabies mentor impressed by the ex-NRL star’s first two matches for
the Force, along with his centre partner, Bill Meakes.

“I always thought Rona was going to do well,” he said.

“I think it was just a matter of he'll need a bit of time. I
think he'll be very similar to how Ben Te'o's gone for England.”

The new generation has also caught Cheika’s eye, with Izack
Rodda, Adam Korczyk, Andrew Kellaway, Tyrel Lomax and Rebels
fullback Jack Maddocks all on his radar after the opening Super Rugby rounds.

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